The present invention relates to a device for holding and transporting one or more spools of wire. More particularly, the invention relates to such a device which comprises a plurality of rods for retaining the spools firmly within the caddy as the wire is being pulled therefrom and a pivot arm assembly for allowing one of the rods to be manually displaced so that the spools can be quickly and easily removed and replaced.
In certain prior art wire spool caddies, the spool is rotatably supported on an elongated rod which extends through an axial hole in the spool and is secured to a supporting frame. However, this arrangement requires that the rod be detached from the frame and withdrawn from the axial hole in order to remove and replace an empty spool. While this is not a great problem for single-spool caddies, removing a single spool from a multiple-spool caddy can be quite cumbersome since the rod must be detached from the frame and withdrawn from the axial holes of all of the spools before the single spool can be removed. In addition, as the wire is being pulled from the spool, the spool tends to freewheel on the rod, which forces the wire to unwind faster than it can be pulled by the user. This can result in the wire becoming tangled over the rod, a situation that requires the user to waste potentially valuable time untangling the wire before it can again be pulled.
The prior art has attempted to address some of these problems by providing wire spool caddies which do not utilize a rod to support the spool through its axial hole. Instead, these caddies comprise a framework of bars and/or sheet material which forms an elongated trough in which multiple spools are supported. Although these wire spool caddies allow individual spools to be removed and replaced relatively easily independent of the other spools, the spools may become dislodged as the wire is being pulled therefrom. In addition, these wire spool caddies cannot easily be combined into an assembly for storing, displaying, using or transporting numerous spools.
These limitations in the prior art are overcome by providing a wire spool caddy for releasably holding at least one cylindrical spool having an outer diameter while a wire or the like is being unwound from the spool, the caddy comprising an elongated frame which includes first and second spaced apart ends, a plurality of generally parallel fixed rods which each extend between and are connected to the first and second ends, and at least one movable rod which is generally parallel to the fixed rods and which extends between and is movably connected to the first and second ends. At least two of the fixed rods are separated by a first distance which is less than the diameter of the spool to thereby form a bottom support for the spool. In addition, the movable rod is pivotable between a first position in which the movable rod is separated from an adjacent fixed rod by a second distance that is less than the diameter of the spool, and a second position in which the movable rod is separated from the adjacent fixed rod by a third distance which is greater than the diameter of the spool. Furthermore, the wire spool caddy preferably includes a spring or similar means for biasing the movable rod into its first position.
Thus, when the movable rod is in its first position the spool is securely retained between the movable and the fixed rods. In addition, when the movable rod is in its second position the spool may be removed or inserted between the movable rod and the adjacent fixed rod independently of any other spools which are held in the wire spool caddy. Furthermore, the frames of a number of wire spool caddies can be conveniently connected to form an assembly of wire spool caddies capable of storing, displaying, using or transporting numerous spools.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be made apparent from the following detailed description, with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, the same reference numbers are used to denote similar components in the various embodiments.